Car Theft Turns a Corner in LA

Car thefts had been on a steady climb in Los Angeles in recent years, but in 2018 they appear to have stalled, at least so far. During the first six months of the year, the number of car thefts declined by 7% compared with the same period in 2017.

Jan.-June 2017–>9,440

Jan.-June 2018–>8,765

The 2018 decrease comes after a five-year peak for vehicle thefts in 2017.

In 2018, the month with the highest number of vehicle thefts was May, which saw 1,543.

Where are these cars being stolen? The LA neighborhood with the highest number of thefts was Boyle Heights, with 332. But there are pockets of high theft areas all over the city. Sun Valley and Van Nuys also made the top 10 list.

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Neighborhood

Total Auto Thefts*

Boyle-Heights

332

Van Nuys

272

Florence

259

Sun Valley

226

Downtown

208

Panorama City

207

Westlake

194

Koreatown

192

North Hollywood

184

San Pedro

181

*An earlier version of this story mistakenly labeled this column auto accidents, not auto thefts.

We examine Los Angeles Police Department reports to compile our data. You can learn more about how we get our crime numbers here.